I am on a wicked, wicked deadline that might just actually kill me. So today, you-all get this:
WordNik Oh my good gosh how I LOVE this site. Do a search for signify which is a lovely Regency-era word. It’s become my go to place for looking up words and doing, uh, research. Yeah! That’s it. Research.
They have charts! Charts about words. <3 <3 <3 You'll notice that in 1807 this word was used a lot and then blam. Not much at all until, perhaps not so mysteriously, about 1985 it looks like, things really took off. That would be about the time Literary Theorists like Derrida, Barthes and more began talking about signifiers.
Middle English signifien, from Old French signifier, from Latin significāre : signum, sign; see sign + -ficāre, -fy.
I don’t know about you, but I’m practically swooning.
Plus, quick! Everyone go tweet the word signify, then all the Riskies and their readers will show up on WordNik!
Now go look up reticule. Well, did you notice the chart?
Did you notice you can comment? Seriously. You leave comments on the words, and some of the comments are AWESOME!
Go play.
That is an AWESOME site. Thanks for the link!
Thanks, Carolyn! I’ve bookmarked it and added it to my writing folder. 🙂
Oh dear, I fear there goes my work day. Will be playing all day with this site instead.
Great! thanks – i’ve bookmarked.
However – signify? It’s a word that’s always been used, at least it never went out of fashion in England! But then, we don’t change easily….
Ohhh. But I’m really busy at work today. Definitely bookmarking this treasure.
Oh dear, just what I needed – another way to waste my time. How could you be so cruel?
Oh, now, Carolyn, that is just wrong. It’s like crack for writers!
Louisa, I started to read Mary Balogh’s Slightly series based on your account of the last novel you posted the other day. OMG!!! It is so wonderful and I wouldn’t have read it without your amazing review. Thank you so much!!
Jane, I am SO delighted you are enjoying the series. It really is a jewel of Regency writing from the first book to the last. It is one of those series I return to again and again when I want a read that is like visiting a family of dear and intriguing friends. Please keep me posted on how you are enjoying it!
Thanks for a fun site I’ll have to visit some time when I’m not half asleep.
Hope things level out for you a bit.
Hey! I commented to this post and I don’t see it here.
Well, it was witty, let me tell you!
Thank you everyone for all the kind remarks.
@Erastes: yes, signify has been around a long time, but as the chart demonstrates, there was a marked dip in the frequency of use per million words between 1807 and 1985, and it’s interesting to me that in 1985 (at least in the US) the meaning of signify began to be used in the 1807 sense of meaning and importance. Post 1807 but Pre-Post Modernists, I think in the US you’d get a lot of blank looks if you said, “that does not signify, where as Post-Modern and really post Derrida etc, you would get fewer.
Also, I LOVE Balogh’s Slightly series. LOVE LOVE LOVE it. Aiden was my favorite.
So far Aidan is my favorite as well.
I’ve been rereading it and marking my favorite parts with my kindle…I think I bookmark something every 2% way through the book (Kindle’s go by percentage instead of page numbers).
Oh, I LOVE me some Aiden Bedwyn. That may be my fav Balogh book ever. Maybe more favorite than A Summer To Remember.